Black teacher, white spaces

This paper examines the lived experiences of six Black anti-racist educators as they engage in dialogues on race in classrooms within a public school district where the students and teachers are predominately white. The Black teacher is often in the position of being an anti-racist text simply by their bodily presence within the school. Their existence in the space of whiteness at once extends the definition of 'teacher' to include Black bodies, while it opens possibilities of who can have knowledge, and who can have authority. Using an anti-colonial lens and drawing on principles of Black feminist epistemology, this project aims to let the lived experience of Black educators serve as the source of knowledge. It examines some of the challenges and supports which Black educators encounter in their practice of anti-racist pedagogy, and concludes by offering suggestions for Black educators, school districts and teacher education programs.